Howard signals health revamp

The Federal Government will soon make changes to its health package in a bid to get it through the Senate and meet continuing criticisms that medical services are inadequate in many places.

Prime Minister John Howard has signalled the revamp, saying the Government is looking at further ways to get more doctors into areas where there are shortages.

Earlier this year the Government, under pressure from falling bulk-billing rates, announced incentives for doctors to bulk bill low-income earners, extra medical training places, and measures to target GPs to areas of need.

The tuning is expected before Christmas, as the Senate considers the legislation. It has been to a Senate inquiry, where it has come under attack. A report to the inquiry, commissioned by a majority of the Senate committee, last week found that the most likely outcome of the changes was that bulk-billing, which is now about 70 per cent of GP services, was likely to fall to 50 per cent. The committee, which has a non-Government majority, will report within weeks.

The Government is caught in a dilemma. If the Senate rejects the legislation, it could go on later to become double dissolution "trigger" legislation.

But the cost would be that the Government would not have a package in place to counter Labor's health proposals. All the signs are that it would prefer to get the legislation through than to add another "trigger" to its arsenal.

Health is an issue on which Labor is relatively well placed against the Government, and there has recently been a barrage of attacks against services.

Confronted on Channel Nine's A Current Affair last week with trenchant criticisms of the health system, Mr Howard said the biggest problem on the GP front was a shortage of doctors in many parts of the country, particularly outer metropolitan and country areas.

"One of the things our package has done is to bring in measures for practice nurses, more bonded scholarships for doctors who are practising in the country to try and get more doctors. And there are other measures I am looking at at the moment," he said.

Assuming Labor continues its opposition, the Government needs to do a deal with the Democrats or win over all four independent senators.

Mr Howard also has to decide whether to keep his embattled Health Minister, Kay Patterson, in the portfolio. His last practical time for a reshuffle, barring ministerial accidents next year, is around Christmas, because he would want a stable team in the months before the election.